Over 500 farmers and their families are currently trapped in Baga town, Borno State, after fleeing violent attacks by the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) militants in northeastern Kukawa. The assaults, which took place on Sunday in Kwata Yobe and Tudun Kanta, resulted in numerous fatalities.
Abbah Gwoza, the leader of the displaced farmers in Baga, explained that the victims fled ISWAP-controlled areas following a wave of violence that disrupted a joint rescue mission involving the Nigerian Army, Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), and local relatives who had gathered to recover the bodies of farmers killed by the militants.
ISWAP fighters from Tumbum Shanu ambushed the rescue operation. “While 43 bodies were buried, the operation had to stop due to heavy gunfire, leaving two soldiers and a CJTF member injured,” Gwoza reported.
The farmers, mostly from the Gwoza and Damargu tribes, have been cultivating crops like beans and onions in the Lake Chad Basin for over thirty years. Despite ISWAP’s control in the area, they managed to negotiate a fragile farming arrangement, where they paid a levy of ₦10,000 per hectare and donated a portion of their harvests as zakat. However, tensions flared when the farmers made a separate deal with Boko Haram’s Buduma faction for additional farmland near Baga.
ISWAP, upon discovering that the farmers had paid levies to Boko Haram, accused them of siding with rival groups. This suspicion led to a brutal assault, during which several farmers were killed, and others were injured. Survivors reported that ISWAP fighters interrogated them about their tax payments before opening fire. Some farmers’ wives were reportedly kidnapped and taken to ISWAP’s safe houses.